Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Artist Reception - Main St Cafe - Elmira


"What a TV Sees" 
36" x 48" - acrylic on canvas
2012


Friday, September 14, 2012, 5-7 pm
Music, sweets, paintings, & Steve
Artist talk @ 6
FREE

Thursday, May 31, 2012



June 1, 2013.
The Main Street Cafe.
Elmira, New York.

Steve Seaberg shows his stuff. The uncelebrated yet self-proclaimed life artist brings a selection from his 2012 oeuvre to the heart of downtown Elmira. Drawing and painting have fascinated and preoccupied Seaberg since childhood. The works shown are a combination of depictions of reality and imaginal constructions that suggest skies over landscapes, all exhibiting the Seaberg style of brushwork and pallet. The painting above is called Church Work on Church Street, Elmira, New York. Seaberg notes that preservation work on the exterior of buildings can receive more attention than what goes on inside, as well as inside of us. The painting is based on a Polaroid snapshot from 2003-2005 when the brick steeple at Trinity Church underwent major repairs. A sign promoting McDonalds and Pizza Hut dominates the lower right quadrant. Church Work is preeminently a sky portrait. In fact, skies dominate Seaberg's work as much as any other element. The show continues throughout June and July.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The "symbol" for what we are, each of us, for ourselves








The human individual can represented as the junction or conjunction of the me I know myself to be and the world to which I am attached (exactly where and how I am attached). The diagram for this singular totality appears above.




The "M" stands for me. The "W" stands for world. Each side is a reflection of the other. Our awareness of both ourselves and our world is constrained and thereby defined within the arms of the M or W respectively. Whatever else is going on around us or what we are up to, the illustrated structure of MW persits to make those other concerns possible.

MW (me + world as a singular event) is the substructure that opens the field of experience as whatever and however it shows itself. My ordinary life as well as all extraordinary and mundane experiences happen as the activity of the MW.

So what?

Forgetting, ignoring, or denying this fundamental fact falsifies the nature of experience. Failure to attribute all experience to the MW structure makes experience inauthentic, false, shallow, fake, insufficient, and difficult (if not impossible) to sustain.

Mistakes on this order are cultivated in the public sphere, and may, in fact, be responsible for the experience of the public sphere such as it is for each one of us.




























Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New show underway @ Art Café

You can see a quick preview of the new show under construction at the Café here:





Watch for details of intriguing and artsy public events.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The finished product



Here is the finished painting. It is now called "What a TV Sees." The vantage of the painting looks down on the assembly as if through the screen of an elevated television. If you viewed the video in the prior post, you will notice that the rightmost figure has changed. A face has replace the philosophical symbol. The coat has transformed along with the bag on the bar.






I'll reserve philosophical comment until later.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Painting and philosophy

A new painting is on display at the Art Cafe. Although called by various titles, it hangs by the name "What a TV Sees." The new show which does not yet have a name includes works by Dean Aldrich, Diane Janowski, Pepsi Lyon, and Allen C. Smith. Events will be announced to focus on the works and artists and involve the public. Stay tuned.

My painting came to life over a ten day span in January. The painting in a pre-completion state can be viewed here:


Painting entails making decisions rather than choices. A decision cuts off alternatives where a choice can be revisited and altered. The buffet table offers choices. If what you choose does not suit your taste, you can choose something else. During the choosing all alternatives are equally available and unaffected by other choices. Once one starts marking up a canvas, decisions replace choices. Making decisions in painting transmutes the value and availability of future options so that alternatives are often eliminated or radically altered.

The progressive history of decisions tells one story about "What a TV Sees." If the work works for you, it tells many other stories too.

Like they say in Manhattan, check it out!